In One Ear and Out the Other: The Challenges of Using In-Ear Monitors

This past weekend during worship service rehearsal I was confronted with an audio phenomenon that didn't fully compute. The setup was fairly normal: drums, bass, guitars, piano, a few extra line-drums, 3 vocalists. The team was well into the run-through when we were confronted with a short burst of feedback in a narrow band around 3-4kHz. Immediately I looked up from my board and toward the stage to get the visual confirmation (band and vocalists wincing in unison, looking back at us in the booth like we're idiots) that something in the system just ripped through the signal chain inducing said noise-burst directly into the ear canals of all the unlucky recipients. Fortunately we (band and techies) are a team and all collectively bore the brunt of the unruly squeal. Experience immediately told me that a vocal microphone was just pointed into a monitor wedge...Although there was just one little problem: THERE WAS NO STAGE MONITOR WEDGE IN USE!!! It was, however, a little different in that it was not as full in volume as a typical feedback burst would be, so I cataloged it as an anomaly and moved on. A few minutes later it happened again. Mystified, I started scanning through all my FOH gain settings, then moved over to take a look at the gain settings in monitorland. The vocalists were collectively singing louder at that point and a few of the input channels and IEM transmitters were living in the red-zone a bit too much. So I had the monitor board operator dial back a few of the things to leave some headroom for the actual service, but didn't equate any of the changes as being related to the main issue at hand. The feedback problem didn't happen again, but after about another half-hour of mulling it over it dawned on me what might be the source of the problem. There was a particular vocalist for that service who notoriously sings quietly, putting out very little acoustic energy, thus requiring significant reinforcement from the mic and speakers. She also has a very narrow tonal range, which complicates the matter. Still, I new the feedback was not coming from the house PA as I've been able to beat her EQ up regularly enough that it's not a problem for me (note: this after frequently and lovingly encouraging her to "sing out!") and the house doesn't characteristically ring in this range if at all. This lead me back to consider the monitor setup. It dawned on me that just as I needed to turn her up in FOH, so did the monitor guy. Then I realized that the vocalist was committing the unpardonable sin of using only one earpiece of her in-ear monitor setup but with the addition of her draping the unused earpiece on the front of her shirt, hanging a third of the way down her chest...just at the same location she decided to hold her microphone while not singing!!! Who woulda' thunk!?! Feedback issues with IEMs... Her vocal was SO cranked in her mix that when her microphone passed by the open earbud, catching it at just the right angle, it caused the system to spiral into unstable audio territory! Crazy... One for the books for sure.

This obviously got me thinking about the whole in-ear monitor scenario in general. I've had long debates in discussions about all aspects of the issue with band and technicians alike. The musicians and singers at our church are typically mixed in their usage with some using both earpieces and some using only one. The argument for usage of only one earpiece goes something like - "Well, I feel cut off from the audience, band, etc." which is understandable but fixable. The worse scenario is the defeatist mentality of "well, the mix doesn't sound great so I won't be a bother to the sound guy...really, it's fine." That, in my book, is completely unacceptable as an excuse.

I won't be exhaustive here about all the issues and how to fix them. There are a number of informative resources that address the process and challenges already. What I do want to do is pose a charge to both performers and technicians, especially as it relates to serving in the context of the Worship Ministry.

First of all, the sound team exists to serve the musicians and singers, who in turn serve the congregation by leading them in song-worship of the Living God. This all is then laid on top of the charge that we are "serving the Lord Christ." (Col. 3:23-24) As such, we can not with good conscience continue to wallow in a sea of indifference and mediocrity if we are to serve with excellence. There are some very tangible ways to get better at what we do, what we should expect, and how we develop our craft.

For those on the platform (band, singers, musicians) I ask you that you be honest in two areas:
1. Your hearing is important to us and it should be to you. Using only one ear puts you squarely on the fast track to long-term hearing damage. In a recent informative Mix article, Michael Santucci, noted audiologist and founder of Sensaphonics has this to say about using one earpiece vs. two:“When players take one out, their brain loses its ability to do binaural summation, where two ears together add up to a 6dB increase in your perception of loudness,” Santucci explains. “If you're hearing 90 dB in both ears, your brain thinks it's hearing 96 dB. If you take one ear away, then that one ear has to go from 90 to 96 to sound like 96. And now the other ear is open and getting bashed by the band, the P.A. and the crowd. So this loud sound coming into the open ear causes you to turn the other ear up even more. In terms of ear safety, using one earpiece is a dangerous practice — it could actually be worse than using none at all.”
2. You need to begin demanding better mixes from the technicians. Ask for a nice musical mix; something that's well balanced (with you on top of course), but something more inspiring than just plain-old functional, i.e. - "lots of my voice and maybe just a little piano and acoustic guitar." Get the right amount of stereo ambient or crowd mics into the equation to get a sense of spaciousness and you should be good to go.

We love you musicians and desperately want you to use your gifts to lead us for years to come. God has given you talent to steward through your voice or hands, but he's also given you two ears to steward as well. As such, please do not take lightly the potential risks involved in compromising your monitoring situation. Your feelings are no match for the brutal reality found in empirically verifiable data on hearing loss due to poor listening practices.
"He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

Now, on to the technicians (myself included). The charges here are the similar as the ones I give to those on the platform:
1. Soundboard operators are responsible for providing safe listening levels in the house and on stage. We are joint-stewards of the hearing faculties of the people we serve, and so we need to be increasingly concerned about creating and promoting a safe environment for our worship leaders.
2. We need to exhibit an increasing proficiency in our craft. It's a poor excuse to say "Well I'm just a volunteer," or "I'm only on once a month; I don't do this for a living and you can't expect perfection." First of all the Lord Jesus (and hopefully those you serve with) see what you do as more than just being a volunteer. Friend, do you not realize this is an act of worship. We put forth our our time and skill and heart and preparation and prayer as an offering to God knowing that we're part of a larger movement to stir people into praise and change peoples lives. It is service and it does require a great degree of humility. Oh, and it definitely requires much grace, especially from the band as it pertains to expectations. We understand that most people who serve on the tech team don't exercise the same skill vocationally during the week. It would do everyone well to remember that the board operator can't pick up the big soundboard and take it home to practice much like a guitarist or vocalist can take their instrument with them. However, this is not a license to neglect the craft in between times we serve. I'm not saying we need to be perfect; we just need to be seeking ways to excel in our craft.
As it pertains to mixing monitors, there are so many ways to get better. Here are a few ideas:
A) Run sound in a different ministry that meets midweek. Sound is sound; any experience can be brought back to the weekend ministry context.
B) Communicate...A LOT! Don't just sit in the booth during the weekend. Go talk to the people you serve; after or in-between services is always good. We're on a team together, and team mates seek to build comfortable relationships where the craft can be discussed. Ask them what they like or don't like about the mix. If you get a simple answer like "It's fine..." News Flash!!! It's not fine. Be specific about something to start the dialog. Try something like "Hey, I tried to brighten up the piano to help the notes cut through a bit more. Did that help you?" This may prompt a response like "Well, I didn't notice that so much, but what I could use is a little more kick, snare, and hat to feel the rhythm better."
C) For IEMs, start improving the stereo mix. We have two ears to hear, which give us a sense of depth and spaciousness. Nothing short-circuits this sensation faster than listening to a mono mix. Often we use two mix channels for input to each wireless IEM transmitter. This means that the system is capable of a stereo mix to the receiver. I worked for years in a studio creating stereo monitor mixes for artists. It takes lots of practice, but it's worth it for them and you. Our singers and musicians should be asking us for a beautiful and inspiring stereo mix...everytime! When was the last time you listened to your iPod with only one ear in? I thought so...Pan out that drum kit, spread out those piano, synth, and keyboard channels, pan the guitars out a bit. Keep the vocal up the middle and prominent, and for good measure, bleed in some of the crowd mics and/or reverb fx to "wet it up."
D) Be listening to lots of music to get some perspective. If you don't love music, you probably shouldn't be serving in this area. Listen to both high quality reference music and sub-par stuff, too. I'm a firm believer in exposure to good and bad sounding stuff, otherwise you never have a guage on the sound quality of the stuff you're mixing. Additionally, be listening to stuff that the band and singers listen to; and not just the mp3 of the special for the weekend, but invest in a variety of CDs of the styles and artists whose songs we play.
E) Be immersing yourself in the wealth of resources outside of just prerecorded music. There are a host of trade publications, books, websites, video tutorials, etc. all available for free or close to nothing. Read multiple perspectives on how other people use the equipment and start experimenting and finding what works and doesn't.
F) Experiment with open channels. Most of the boards we use at Harvest are digital. As such, the ability to patch sound sources to multiple channels allows the operator to set the mix using preassigned channels, then also double-route inputs to open channels that nobody else but the operator hears. This creates the perfect environment to experiment with real live sound sources with which the tech person can then practice different EQ and compressor settings (or whatever else your heart desires) without the effects being heard by the musicians. As you find some useful settings begin to implement them as long as they don't create a distraction to the hearer.

Much more can be said about this, but enough talk; let's get to work. It's going to take a joint effort on the part of musicians/singers and the techies who serve them to improve in these areas.
Patience, grace, practice, ongoing dialog...Prayer, humility, did I mention patience?

"Do you see a man skillful in his work?
He will stand before kings;
he will not stand before obscure men." Proverbs 22:29

Obama Signs Government Bailout Plan for Failing Smooth Jazz Radio Station...NOT!

Well, I waited a little while to comment on this topic when I could find a moment to gather my thoughts. I've been a little busy with the new family addition. Anyway, here goes...

On the morning of Friday May 22, 2009, cubicles and elevators all around the Chicagoland area paused for 95 1/2 seconds of silence to remember a fallen radio station. OK, not really, but WNUA, the smooth jazz kingpin of the Chicago airwaves officially went off the air due to lagging financial support, replaced by Clear Channel's "Mega" Spanish-pop offering.

This is a big deal for three reasons:
1) On a large scale, it marks a certain facing-of-reality by the music sub-culture that is Smooth Jazz that maybe it really is not a sustainable art form after all. As more of an illegitimate child of '70s fusion-jazz, smooth jazz took off in the mid-1980s as it blended vocals and other pop-crossover stylings offering greater commercial appeal . Further toward the turn of the century, it grafted in slow-jam and funky groove elements, making it a hit among adult "urban" crowds.
2) The replacement format choice is a mega-win for commercial appeal in the region. Chicago has always been a diverse city, but this clearly marks an acknowledgment of the ethnic changes that have been bubbling over for some time. There are other Hispanic stations on the dial, but they play a more traditional south-of-the-border flavor. Mega 95.5 has a significantly more pop-crossover identity, which probably aligns more closely with the blending of Hispanic and American pop-music culture.
3) I can speak openly and frankly about the smooth jazz style as I was immersed in the making of it (which put a good chunk of my food on the table) between 1995 and 2003. For a number of reasons, Chicago became the petri dish for this music, and I just happened to end up working in the recording studio that churned out a great deal of its creative undertakings. I cut my teeth on a whole variety of music - gospel, contemporary Christian, pop, straight-ahead jazz, rock, commercial spots, etc. - but a good chunk of the calendar was filled recording and mixing what I would consider "pop instrumental" music. There where some diamonds in the rough; producers and musicians who brought a high-caliber of musical production values to the table, but those where few and far-between. Most of the time however they were banal, sub-par musical offerings whose ultimate hope was often to get just a hint of airplay on WNUA or its sister stations. "For what ultimate purpose, though?", I often asked. Well, not outloud to the artists, but internally of course. Most of these cats are hardworking musicians, though; many of whom I would still consider friends. As such, if "faithful are the wounds of a friend," then my hope that they would take these words and this new season as a time to get back to the toolshed for some fresh musical offerings.

OK, yes; music is subjective, but here are a few thoughts about music-making and its ability to stay viable over the long haul. First, a song or style's transcendence is directly tied to purity and creativity of the particular expression and its ability to connect with the masses. Write a good song that captures the emotion of the songwriter, which also resonates with the given culture, and deliver it on a fresh and palatable musical canvas, and you'll probably have a classic. Failure on any of these points will likely send you to the music graveyard. Second, Western music has a limited range; 12 notes to be exact. There's only so much one can do to reinvent those notes in a unique way. Now take away the vocal element, which is how the majority of humans connect emotionally with one another through song form, and which is exactly what most smooth jazz songs do, and replace it with an instrument that belongs in the background of pop productions (solos excepted) and make it try to speak like a vocal... Any rational music maker will see that there is no way that this type of creation can have lasting health without offering proper musical nourishment. As the childbirth class instructor for our first baby once said in reference to adequate feedings, "The proof is in the poop!" Finally, music is a gift from God. He gave it to us as an means to creatively express worship, to which He is rightly due. For thousands of years now, people have been singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs about His infinite worth, wonderful creation, and most of all, His awesome redemption found only through faith in Jesus Christ. Now that's a music style guaranteed to last forever.

Yes, there will still be the fond jokes & memories:
- "Some people take their mix out to the car to listen for reference, but we had a audio tielines from the control room pumped out to the elevator; real world reference, baby!"
- "How do you know when the smooth jazz mix is finished? The engineer is asleep at the board."
- "Steve, turn up the electric guitar already! This isn't smooth jazz, OK!?!"
- A particular friend who had a knack for programming all my car radio presets to 95.5...just because.
- Ah, and who can forget the classic "WNUA theme song" parody tracks by local musician and anti-smooth jazz zealot, Jim Dinou...

Where shall one now turn to hear Sade's "Smooth Operator" or Kenny G's "Songbird"? I guess satellite/internet radio or iTunes or wherever; but for now I count this as a great victory for the artistic purity of the music industry. Kinda' reminds me of the Apostle Peter's condemnation of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5, where we see God purifying His church from those intentionally holding back their best from Him.